Darci Kistler (audio)

At 17, Darci Kistler was the youngest principal dancer in the history of the New York City Ballet. The last discovery of the company's legendary choreographer, George Balanchine, she was poised on the brink of what promised to be a spectacular career. But within the year, a freak accident threatened to end that career for good. Slipping on a piece of duct tape in rehearsal, Kistler shattered an ankle. Two operations were followed by two years of physical therapy as she struggled to rebuild her lost strength. In the necessarily brief working life of a classical dancer, the loss of two crucial years of training can be fatal. Many doubted she would ever dance again, and few believed she would ever fulfill the promise she had shown. Her mentor Balanchine died only a few months after her accident, but his successor, Peter Martins, had faith in her, and she eventually resumed dancing with the company. By 1988, she was in full command of her powers and ready for fresh challenges. Over the next years, she grew from strength to strength, mastering the company's challenging repertoire of Balanchine ballets, while great choreographers such as Jerome Robbins vied to create works for her. Kistler became the most admired classical dancer of her generation. Her magic has been captured in City Ballet's 1993 film of The Nutcracker, in which she appears as the Sugarplum Fairy. She retired from the New York City Ballet in 2010. This podcast was recorded during the 1991 International Achievement Summit in New York City, when Darci Kistler was at the very height of her career.